October 23, (THEWILL) – The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, has suspended his presidential campaign, after his counterpart in the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, called for the suspension of all campaigns to honour Nigerians affected by the disaster.
Atiku is set to commence a tour of states impacted by flooding.
Obi commenced his own tour four days ago with a visit to Benue State, where he donated money to displaced people.
Floods have hit parts of Nigeria in the last two months Houses and farmlands have been submerged in Lagos, Yobe, Borno, Taraba, Adamawa, Edo, Delta, Kogi, Niger, Plateau, Benue, Ebonyi, Anambra, Bauchi, Gombe, Kano, Jigawa, Zamfara, Kebbi, Sokoto, Imo, Abia States, and the Federal Capital Territory.
More than 600 people have died in the worst flooding Nigeria has seen in more than a decade, according to the nation’s humanitarian affairs department.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Sadiya Umar Farouq, said that as of Sunday, over 603 people died, 2,407 injured and 1.3 million others have been displaced.
Additionally, “about 82,000 homes have been completely destroyed, 108,000 hectares of farmland have been damaged (raising concerns about Nigeria’s food supply) along with 332,000 hectares of roads and infrastructure”, Farouq said.
A press statement issued by Paul Ibe, his Media Adviser, said the former Vice President will begin the tour from Bayelsa State on Tuesday.
The “tours to states ravaged by flooding become incumbent in view of the trauma that the incidents have caused its victims”, the statement said.
Ibe said, “Consequently, the tours will provide the presidential candidate the opportunity to have an on-sight impact assessment of these flooding incidents and give him a veritable window to input those ecological concerns in his policy documents.”
The statement pointed out that “the PDP presidential candidate had supported flood victims in Jigawa, Yobe and Kano long before now.
“He was also the first candidate to speak on the issue and had counselled that persons living around the most vulnerable areas be temporarily evacuated following the alert by the meteorological agency that a further 24 states faced the risk of major flooding.”
Atiku, however, staged a rally in Edo State on Saturday, but has now scaled back campaign operations to take first hand reports on the affected states.
